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Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Here and Now

Life here is crazy, as always.

I can't believe that it's been a month since Jason returned home! The adjustment to having him home has been interesting. He has struggled to be patient with the kids because he's not used to the noise level and amount of activity that come with having 6 young kids. (Not that our house was ever quiet before he left, but everybody has stepped it up a notch since then.) I'm struggling to find the balance between doing everything in the house myself and asking for support and help when I need it. It's really tough. I've been in survival mode for so long.

The kids are doing great. They are so resilient! The big boys love Washington and have a whole street full of new friends. We have been blessed to end up in the perfect neighborhood and we are living in the perfect house for our family. Leila has been having a hard time adjusting to Daddy being home. She wants his undivided attention and has been throwing some very toddler-ish tantrums lately. Sarah, on the other hand, has undergone a transformation. She has not pooped in her pants in 5 weeks. She went from having several "accidents" a day, back to being fully potty-trained-just as she was before he left. It breaks my heart to think of how difficult it must have been for her while Jason was gone. Nathan and Ryan had no idea who Jason was when he got home but now they follow him around the house and kiss him. Ryan wakes up every morning and asks me, "Mommy, where Daddy? Daddy at work?"

Jason had 48 hours of leave that started the morning after he returned home. After that, he went back to work until yesterday. Today is actually his first day of block leave. He'll be home with us for the next 3 weeks! We have big plans for a family trip to San Diego next week. Actually, we leave tomorrow.

Last week Jason's battalion had a homecoming ball and we actually had our first night out together without the kids in about 3 years. A new friend that I met through the local multiples club came and stayed with our kids while we went to the ball. The highlight of my day came when I was getting my hair done at the salon and the hairstylists thought I was getting married. I laughed and replied that I was already married with six kids. They didn't believe me! They told me they thought I was nineteen or twenty. Nineteen or twenty?! Do you know how much I smiled when they said that? There is nothing nicer that you could say to a (::cough, cough:: 30-year old) mother of six. I was in an awesome mood for the rest of the day. Jason and I headed to Union Station in downtown Tacoma and had a delicious dinner and some only-slightly-awkward conversation with his coworkers- both his soldiers and his commanders. It was really, really nice.I've been settling back into my usual routine now that the house is unpacked. I get up, serve breakfast, homeschool the kids, make lunch, play with kids, change babies, make dinner, collapse. Repeat.

I haven't even been sure what to blog about anymore. Yesterday, the highlights of my day included Nathan flooding the kitchen sink (I'm bungee-cording the chairs now, K!) and Ryan bring me a little piece of poop that wasn't even his. Writing about poop just seems lame after writing about deployments and cross-country travel in a camper. But, it is reality for me.

So, I guess life is back to normal. Scratch that. My life has never been normal. I guess life is back to our usual chaos and twinsanity. I love it.

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About Me

I'm a Christian mom, Army wife, and doula. I've had 6 children in 5 years including not one, but two, sets of identical twins. I'm an advocate for homebirth and I gave birth to my twin girls on the floor of my own bedroom. (View my homebirth story here. ) I just survived a long deployment and a cross-country move with sanity mostly intact.